Exhibit Uses Play On 'KKK' To Highlight Black-On-Black Crime

Members of the Central Library's African-American History Committee read the names of victims of violence in Indianapolis(wibc.com photo: Ray Steele)

A new exhibit at the Central Library in Indianapolis uses a provocative title to tackle gun violence among African-Americans.

The traveling exhibit is called Kin Killin' Kin, created by artist James Pate of Dayton, Ohio. The acronym KKK is intentional according to the curator of the piece. "We've been putting the Ku Klux Klan out of business because we've been killing each other more than the Klan did," said curator Bing Davis, artist and native of Indianapolis. "They are images that are sometimes hard to look at, because it brings up a reality that we know."

The exhibit is the centerpiece of the library's "Stand4Peace" initiative that encourages dialogue toward finding solutions to black-on-black crime. "The problem has been a long time coming," said Mayor Greg Ballard. "Even if we tamp it down as we did the past four or five years, you tamp it down, it's going to rise up again."

13 images are the primary focus of the exhibit, many done in charcoal, and all depicting images of violence. The artists uses Ku Klux Klan imagery in most of them, placing Klan hoods on black men who are depicted shooting other black men. Other features include a Declaration of Peace that anyone can sign and bullets strewn along the wall. The exhibit will be on display at the Central Library's South Exhibit Hall until September 28.